Hanging Kitchen Towel

Cotton Kitchen Dish Towels

1 Yard Floral Fabric (1 yard can be used for several towels)

Roll of Floral Ribbon (One roll is enough for several towels)

Scissors

Straight Pins

Sewing Machine (Or you can hand stitch if you prefer.)

My first step was to make a DIY tie for my hanging kitchen towel. From my fabric, I cut a piece that was 3 feet long by about 5 inches wide. I folded the fabric in half right sides together and pinned it together. I then used my sewing machine to sew the long sides together. Once the long edges were sewn, I turned the tie right side out and used my sewing machine to top stitch the short ends of the tie closed.

I used an iron to press the completed tie. I also ironed my store-bought dish towel.

The next step is to sew your handmade kitchen towel tie onto the kitchen towel. Fold your kitchen towel in half (from top to bottom) to find the center of the towel. You will be sewing your tie onto this center.

I made two hanging towels, and I sewed the tie on two different ways.

For the first tie, I placed the tie horizontally along the crease I made in my towel and sewed it on. (Making sure to have equal lengths of the tie extending beyond each side of the towel.)

For the second towel, I folded the tie in half with the ends of the tie stretching above the towel. I then sewed the tie vertically on in the middle of the horizontal crease that I had made in the towel.

(You can see in the photo below that I had first cinched the second towel by sewing basting stitches across the towel along the horizontal fold and then pulling the top thread. But I prefer the towel without cinching better.)

I like to hang my kitchen towels on my oven's long horizontal handle, as my oven is by the kitchen sink. The towel with the tie sewed on horizontally is a little more difficult to hang on the handle, but I think it looks much prettier!

(I loop each side of the tie over the handle and then bring each end of the tie in across the towel to tie a bow - see photo at the top of this post.) I have a dishwasher and use my DIY hanging towels mostly as hand towels, so I don't need to untie them frequently and can just leave them hanging.

The towel that has the tie sewed on vertically can be tied to the handle more easily, but I don't think the towel itself is as pretty.

(if this sounds confusing, visit my tutorial on my blog for more photos.)

The last step is to add the ribbon to the hanging kitchen towels. I top stitched the ribbon onto the top and bottom of the towels with my sewing machine.

For each ribbon, I sewed the ribbon onto the towel with a line of stitches on both the top and bottom of the ribbon.

When stitching the bottom ribbon, be use to open the towel so you just sew the ribbon onto the top of the towel. (And don't wind up stitching your towel closed.)

I estimated the cost for this project, but it's difficult the get a perfectly exact estimate . I bought a yard of fabric, a roll of ribbon and a stack for flour sack towels. I have plenty of fabric, ribbon and towels left!

I am very pleased with these hanging kitchen towels. I hope to make some as gifts, too!